The Domino Effect (Literally)

Around November each year, there is an event in Leeuwarden, Netherlands known as Domino Day. Organized by Endemol, groups of domino builders collectively attempt to break the previous year's world record. In the last Domino Day, there were 89 builders from 14 different countries whom spent 8 weeks stacking dominoes in a bid to create a record.

Although there were portions of the dominoes that never fell or fell too early, overall the event was successful in shattering the previous year's world record by around 150,000. A colossal total of 4,800,000 dominoes were placed with 4,491,863 of those dominoes successfully falling during Domino Day 2009.

The bird's eye view of the entire floor plan of dominoes during Domino Day. The amount of spaced required to host this gigantic project reached up to 9,500 square meters. Equipment was used to host builders to the center for fixes and finishing touches that could not be reached normally without disturbing the outer domino pieces.

The 89 participants created popular icons of the 7 continents on Earth using some 300 varying color combinations. Patience and steady hands are a significant requirement to minimize accidents that may set off thousands of dominoes. Approximately 5,700 square meters of the floor was painted for this occasion.

The Domino Day partakers were from Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland.
I thought I had already seen some pretty cool dominoes creations but this is dominoes on steriods given the sheer amount of dominoes along with the diverse designs. Unfortunately there might not be an event this year due to the weak economic climate so current plans are most likely aimed for an event in 2011.